Review: ‘Nobody Knows How to Talk to Children Anymore’

Outrageously amateurish doc thumbs its nose at music-pic verities, perhaps earning some street cred with fans of the White Stripes. But concert pic's consumer-level lensing and dull backstage vignettes won't make new fans for the band. "Nobody" may have had its only showing, as the band owns the footage and is refusing release it in this form.

The outrageously amateurish “Nobody Knows How to Talk to Children Anymore” thumbs its nose at music-pic verities, perhaps earning some street cred with fans of the White Stripes, its irony-laden subjects. But concert pic’s consumer-level lensing and dull backstage vignettes won’t make new fans for the band, nor for multi-hat-wearing pic-maker Nick Roca, who adds no twists to the genre — especially after the masterly Metallica docu. “Nobody” may have had its only showing in Seattle, as the band owns the footage and is refusing release it in this form.

Brother-and-sister act Jack and Meg White — he plays guitar, she’s the drummer — don’t need help with their hipster image; the duo is famously obfuscating with interviewers, and their punkish take on rural blues styles certainly puts them in unique sonic territory (even while occasionally recalling that “Ghost World” band specializing in “authentic Delta blues”). But little that’s said in the wings of a four-nighter at New York’s Bowery Ballroom contributes to their mystique. Nor do greenroom visits from such as Macauley Culkin and the Strokes yield startling insights or even basic amusement. Despite sonic glitches, music segs are often strong.